78 CLASS IT. 
made up of stolons, connecting tubes erect, ventricose, striated, each 
containing a Polyp. Whether the Polyps are retractile or not, does 
not appear. Comp. genus Hvagora Puripri (p. 79). 
Family IV. Halcyonina. Polypary fleshy, spongy, perforated 
by many canals, and crowded with microscopic calcareous spicula. 
The Polyps associated in the polypary, retractile, with tentacles 
pinnate. 
This family has its name from the genus Aleyoniwm L. called in 
Holland Zeeschuim or Zeekurk (sea-foam or sea-cork). Under the 
genus Alcyoniwm of Linnmus were comprised species which, like 
Alcyonium Scuuosseri, belong to the Molluscs (Ascidia), as Sa- 
vicNy has shewn ; other species are Bryozoa (Aleyon. gelatinosum). 
The genus Aleyoniwm of Lamarck contains plant-like forms without 
polyps. To these spongy plants belongs also the genus Alcyonellum 
Quoy (Huplectella Owxn). Consequently there remain for this 
family those species alone which Lamarck has united under the 
genus Lobularia, and probably it would be well, according to the 
suggestion of SCHWEIGGER, to reject the name Alcyoniwm altogether, 
for the sake of avoiding confusion. 
On the sponges comp. ScHWEIGGER, Handb. der Naturgesch. der skelett- 
losen ungeglederten Thiere, s. 370—374, R. E. Grant, in Edinb. Philos. 
Journ. Vol. XIIt. p. 333, H. F. Linx, Ueber Pflanzenthiere iiberhaupt und 
die dazu gerechneten Gewtichse besonders. Physik. Abhandl. der Akad. der 
Wissensch. zu Berlin a. d, Jahre 1830. s. 109 —123. 
Alcyonidia Mitnr Epw. Polypary simple or ramose, with a 
basal portion coriaceous, a terminal polypiferous, soft, retractile by 
invagination within the former. Polyps with tentacles having 
pine, which are hollow, in a single row at the margin, retractile 
separately. 
Sp. Alcyonidia elegans Minne Epwarps, Ann. des. Se. nat. ze Sér. Iv. 1835. 
pp. 323—333- Pl. 12, 13. In the Mediterranean at Algiers. 
Nephtea Say. (according to EHRENB. to be written Nephthya). 
Polypary ramulose or shrubby, with Polyps retractile within warts 
armed with spicula. 
Sp. Nephteca innominata-Buarnv., Nephthya Savignyit Exrens., Ammothea 
Chabrolit AupouIn, Déscr. de V Egypte, Polypes, Pl. 11. fig. 5. To the same 
genus belongs Sphongodes celosia Lesson, Illustrations de Zoologie, Pl. xxt. 
which seems scarcely different from Alcyoniuvm floridum Esper, Aleyon. 
Tab. XVI. 
